Now hiring: Local restaurants cut hours in labor shortage

By Rebecca J. Barnabi
For Augusta Free Press

STAUNTON — The country’s unemployment rate remains the lowest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and “now hiring” signs are visible in the windows of many local businesses.

Yet, some local restaurants are struggling to hire employees.

Kathy’s Restaurant recently made the decision to no longer provide dinner. The restaurant’s hours are now Sundays-Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The By and By Café in downtown Staunton has been a coffee shop since 2002. In 2008, Michael and Clare Harper purchased the coffee shop at 140 E. Beverley Street. Before the pandemic, the shop’s hours were 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. During the pandemic, the shop stayed open providing carry-out services.

“So, we’re kind of piecing things back together,” said Clare Harper. “It’s just been a long process.”

Harper said the shop’s staffing challenges began in 2020 when it scaled down to a “skeleton crew.”

Eventually as the pandemic subsided, the shop began staying open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., but cut its hours back to 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. a couple weeks ago. Last week, hours changed again to 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays.

“It seems like this has been the harder point, harder than 2020,” Harper said.

Harper said she cannot explain the labor shortage right now. Besides she and her husband, the shop usually has six employees who are part-time or full-time depending on their availability. But the shop is about to lose three employees, and, while she hopes to hire two new individuals in the coming weeks, hours had to be cut back for now.

“It’s a weird predicament,” she said.

She wonders if individuals are just not interested in food service, although it is a good industry to enter when you have no previous job experience. Harper also wonders if during the pandemic individuals found other means of income when they lost their jobs to a slow economy.

“We’ve never really had trouble finding people when we needed them,” she said. Usually, more want to work at The By and By than positions are available.